By Carolina Bae
Disney’s John Carter, rated PG-13, is a science-fiction action movie based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, A Princess of Mars. It takes place during the 1880s and tells the tale of John Carter, a civil war veteran who finds himself on Mars, or as the natives call it, Barsoom.
Carter lands on Mars by taking a strange medallion from a monk-like person. He transports to a dry flatland and encounters alien creatures known as Tharks and Martian humans. It turns out, Mars is undergoing a civil war similar to the one Carter was trying to escape.
When the movie began, it was very confusing. It flashed from year to year, past and ‘present’. The plot was unclear until a little after he landed on Barsoom. Toward the middle of the film, everything began to make a little more sense.
The effects in this movie would have been amazing in 3D. On Mars, Carter has the ability to jump much higher than anyone on the planet because of his Earthly bone structure. All of his jumping and Martian technology were exciting and different than what would be on Earth.
The idea for the technologies were very interesting. Since Mars lacked water, they flew based on solar power. Carter is fascinated with this and shares to the people there that Earth had ships, but they floated on water.
On Mars, they all have tribes. Each tribe has a Jeddak, or a ruler. Each society was not as modernized as Earth was, but their technology, running on solar power, and having guns with special projectiles, proved to be slightly more advanced. This contrast was intriguing and helped made Carter’s differences more amusing.
These tribes also worship gods. These gods, who do not reside on the planet, send invisible messengers to govern the people and cause fated destruction. These Therns helped to cause the civil war on Mars and attempt to find Carter to kill him because of the medallion he had found. The use of these Therns were a little creepy but helped to develop the conflict of the story.
Overall this movie was a little confusing, but is still interesting with an amazing conclusion. If you’re on the fence of watching this movie, go watch it. It was a refreshing twist from Disney’s usual PG rated movies.
Josh Kent • May 30, 2012 at 4:28 am
I saw this movie, and I absolutely agree with your review. The plot was rather confusing for a little bit. I feel like this movie was a rendition of somethign else though. your typical ” hero who unites everyone under a common casue to defeat evil”. It reminded me of AVatar or lwrence of Arabia, just the roles we’re reversed.
Faven Butler • May 28, 2012 at 9:00 pm
This is a brief column that keeps readers interested in what is going on in the world of entertainment. I liked how she gave hints on what would happen without actually telling the whole story. This is one of the little things that keeps the paper so interesting to students.
Matthew Schneck • May 23, 2012 at 6:15 pm
I have really appreciated the recent reports on pop-culture topics. With such information being posted regularly, it helps keep readers in the loop. Without this report I probably would have never made an effort to see this movie. TRN should take this new idea of reviewing movies and incorporate it into the paper like they do with the Game Corner section.
Zachary Harrison • Apr 2, 2012 at 12:09 pm
This is very thorough and from an individual stand point. The fact that it has not been formalized in the writing makes it have so much more impact.
Curtis Williams • Mar 30, 2012 at 8:26 am
I honestly did not like the movie but it had great effects and a semi-good plot. I wish it wasn’t made by Disney because it could’ve been amped up with a lot more plots and graphics.
Madison Guidry • Mar 30, 2012 at 7:39 am
It is relaly cool that you all did a movie review! Carolina did a really good job with writing about the movie without giving away important details. It was like a written trailor. I like how our newspaper incorporates things outside of our school like an actual newspaper. Kudos to Carolina!
Jack Semrau • Mar 30, 2012 at 5:17 am
Seems to be worth checking out. I like that you are serious about this critic and also naming the negatives of the movie. First i thought this movie would be stupid but this review convinced me to go see for myself whether or not I like the civil war veteran fight yet another war.
Tyler Thompson • Mar 30, 2012 at 5:15 am
I like that the news did a movie review on John Carter. When I saw the previews I wanted to see it until the Disney came up. Since they usually make more childish movies I feared that they would make a supposingly action movie less so because of the general audience of Disney’s movies. Because of this movie reveiw I may be more persuaded to go and see this movie. I like to see the news covering things that are of interest to me outside of school or school events.
Faven Butler • Mar 30, 2012 at 2:16 am
This opinion piece definitely persuaded me to go see this movie. I appreciate the fact that the writer did not tell the ending of the movie which therefore persuades us to go see what happens ourselves. I also like how she pondered about how the movie would be even better if it was in 3D. Not only did she give exciting clips that persuaded us, she put her own thoughts of what could have gone into the movie.
Becca Soon • Mar 29, 2012 at 9:26 pm
I think TRN should do more of these! I got a really good insight on what the movie was about and it actually gives you information about it with out ruining the story for people who haven’t seen it. Doing articles like this might give students something to do on the weekends…go see the movie they read about in the TRN newspaper!
John Shumar • Mar 29, 2012 at 7:24 pm
This is a good movie review. I like how the exciting parts were not the only things mentioned; it makes the article easier to relate to if I am trying to make a decision on whether or not to go to a movie. This article also gives a summary without giving away the movie.
Melissa Tomlin • Mar 29, 2012 at 6:02 pm
I think that this article was a very good review. I have not seen commercials on this movie but this article gave good details about it. I do not know if this movie would be good for kids because it seemed a little confusing and hard to flow, from what I got from the article.
Sarah Beth Howard • Mar 29, 2012 at 5:56 pm
I heard on the radio one morning that apparently John Carter is actually supposed to be from Virginia. But I do have a big concern because Disney does not do a bad job with their normal movies. Unfortunately, I feel like John Carter is looking to appeal way too much to other people that they may be stretching WAY too far for their comfort zone. Although Disney could use some action movies, I don’t think this is the style of action movies they should go for. It could get a little muddled, and Disney might try to make more movies to create another generic plotline.
Kayla Bishop • Mar 29, 2012 at 5:00 pm
I liked how the review of the movie gave details but didn’t give away the whole story. When i look at reviews of movies when trying to decide what movie to go see in the theaters i want it to tell me some about the movie and if it was enjoyable ,confusing, or terrifying. When spending that much money i want to make sure it will be on a movie worthwhile. I feel like this review didnt give a clear yes this movie is good. I normally do not go to see Disney movies and wasn’t particularly interested in going to see it but this review made me a little bit more interested but I’m still going to wait for it to come a paperview to see it.
Abria Humphries • Mar 29, 2012 at 11:10 am
I liked the article. I felt as if it could have went into more indepth discussion. John Carter was a movie that i was very interested in seeing. So I am glad that the article stated what the movie was about and the purpose of it. Since the article stated that the movie was confusing, it gives me a heads up as to what i should be looking forward to, thank you.